radiofree.asia

Category: Colston Four

  • Right-wingers are really struggling to understand the Colston 4 acquittal

    Right-wing figures seem very confused by the acquittal of those dubbed the Colston Four. The four activists were on trial for criminal damage relating to the toppling of Tory slaver Edward Colston’s statue into the River Avon in 2020. Rhian Graham, Milo Ponsford, Sage Willoughby and Jake Skuse were all found not guilty by a jury. There were scenes of celebration as a result of the ruling.

    But not everyone was happy it seems. Right-wing commentators and politicians turned out on Twitter to express their sadness and confusion that those who toppled the slaver’s statue had been acquitted.

    Confused

    Among these was former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie. MacKenzie simply could not understand why the four had been let off. He went as far as to question the jury’s mental health:

    Tory MP Robert Jenrick was similarly alarmed at the verdict. He suggested that toppling Colston – who, incidentally, was also a Tory MP – amounted to making vandalism an acceptable form of protest:

    While Blackpool MP Scott Benton called the decision “appalling”  and branded the original protest a “violent act”

    Top prize

    Top prize for sad right-winger, however, must go to commentator Darren Grimes. Grimes lamented the idea that you could now “destroy public property” if it was a “noble” cause.

    The GB News contributor asked if the representation of Karl Marx in Highgate Cemetery in London could legitimately be toppled according to that logic:

    Though he failed to note that, unlike Colston’s statue, Marx’s Highgate monument is also the German revolutionary’s gravestone.

    Slaver

    But it’s important never to let Tories and statue defenders have the last word. On the matter of Colston, left-wing MP Zarah Sultana captured the real spirit of the man and his sordid business practices:

    As Sultana rightly points out, Colston was involved in transporting tens of thousands of African people to the Caribbean. Nineteen thousand of whom died during the passage. Once there, they were further subjected to all the brutalities that characterised that disgusting practice.

    And the Bristol band Massive Attack also weighed in, saying that the stature should never have been there in the first place:

     

    Unlike the wealthy Tory slave-owner Edward Colston, few of his victims names are remembered. Seen in this light, the toppling of his statue in Bristol into the docks looks less like vandalism and more like a small meaure of justice for the victims of his horrendous actions.

    Featured image via Caitlin Hobbs/Wikimedia, cropped to 770×403 pixels, licensed under CC BY 4.0

    By Joe Glenton

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • Now its up to the jury to decide their verdict on the people who toppled Bristol’s Colston statue

    The jury is currently considering its verdict in the trial of four of the people who toppled a statue of slave trader Edward Colston. On 4 January, Bristol Crown Court heard closing speeches from the defence and the prosecution.

    The pulling down of the statue happened during Bristol’s huge Black Lives Matter demonstration on 7 June 2020.

    The trial of the Sage Willoughby, Rhian Graham, Milo Ponsford, and Jake Skuse – dubbed the ‘Colston Four’ – has been ongoing since last December, and 4 January was the first day back in court after a break for Christmas and New Year.

    Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh – the defence barrister for Rhian Graham – told the jury in her closing speech that Colston was responsible for the enslavement of 84,000 Black people – including 12,000 children – and the deaths of 19,000 people. She said that a:

    line in the sand was drawn on 7 June 2020 by those who joined together to pull the statue down and to dump it in the harbour. They recognised the need to make clear that Colston’s victims, those 84,000 Black lives – more than three times the total number of the Black community in Bristol today – that they mattered. That those Black lives matter. That they will not be forgotten or airbrushed out of history. That their descendants’ pain will not be ignored. That their slaver – their tormenter – will not continue to have his crimes whitewashed, as he towers above them on his pedestal.

    She said that those enslaved by Colston were:

    torn from their homes and families; chained; whipped; branded with a red hot iron with the initials of his company; and shipped across the sea as things – not as human beings – on a journey of horror

    She continued:

    You heard about the slave ships… You’ve heard about the chilling term “wastage”. You heard about the rapes and beatings. You heard… about it taking seven years to literally work an enslaved person to death.

    Raj Chada – defence counsel for Jake Skuse – said to the jury:

    The statue of Edward Colston, standing in the centre of Bristol, [was] utterly indecent, offensive and disgraceful. We all know that.

    An act of defiance against racism

    The Bristol demonstration was part of the global Black Lives Matter movement that came in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.

    Ní Ghrálaigh told the jury:

    On 25 May 2020 shortly after 8:20 pm, African American George Floyd  was murdered by police officer Derek Chauvin, who knelt on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds until he stopped breathing. The video of his long drawn out killing went viral around the world. People heard his repeated pleas of “I can’t breathe” and his desperate cry to his dead mother

    People in Bristol were quick to join the movement. On 7 June, 10,000 people gathered on College Green for the biggest in a series of powerful Black Lives Matter demonstrations. Tiffany Lyare – one of the demonstrators – told Vogue Magazine at the time:

    I didn’t want to protest just because of the loss of George Floyd’s life, but because of the fact that I am also black and I have experienced discrimination and racism first hand

    Lyare added:

    It almost felt like it was a personal attack to myself in a way

    We all toppled Colston

    As the marched passed the statue of Edward Colston, people paused and began to work together to remove the statue by putting a rope around its neck and pulling.

    The court was reminded that one of the police witnesses earlier in the case had estimated that thousands of people had been involved in taking the statue down. According to Ní Ghrálaigh:

    Police Officer Julie Hayward estimated that there were in excess of 3,000 people around the statue, just under a third of her estimated total of at least 10,000 marchers.

    These included:

    Those people around the statue who joined together spontaneously to pull as one on the rope that Rhian Graham had supplied [and] those people who applauded them as they did.

    Ní Ghrálaigh told the court that:

    After the slave trader was toppled, and the jubilations were over, a Black man knelt on Edward Colston’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, the length of George Floyd’s slow murder. The statue was rolled to the harbour and unceremoniously dumped in the water.

    Chada told the jury that Jake Skuse was one of the people who helped drag the statue across the cobblestones to the harbour. According to Chada, the cobblestones were:

    cobbles which in his mind signified where people would have been dragged unwillingly in centuries before, dragged to the harbour in the symbolic act of being dumped there.

    ‘At least I won’t have to see that fucking slave trader on my way to work anymore‘

    After the toppling of Colston, hundreds of messages of support were left at the foot of the – now empty – plinth. Some of them read:

    I want to send my gratitude to the people who participated in the toppling of the Colston statue. It was never an erasing of culture but creating a better informed history…

    Power to the people. Equality is Quality.

    and:

    At least I won’t have to see that fucking slave trader on my way to work anymore.

    Aftermath

    The events of 7 June – and the momentum of the global Black Lives Matter movement – led to the renaming of Bristol’s Colston Hall and a decision to rename two schools in Bristol named after the slave trader. The court also heard that a pub in Bristol changed its name; that the stained glass windows and other dedications to Colston had been removed from St Mary Redcliffe Church and Bristol Cathedral, and that Colston Tower has been renamed Beacon Tower. The Colston Society also voted to close itself down.

    The court heard that the toppling of the statue of Colston had been celebrated in Trinidad and had been mentioned during the funeral of George Floyd in the US. Ní Ghrálaigh told the jury:

    Gloria Daniel, the great, great granddaughter of the enslaved child John Isaac, emphasised the significance of the toppling. She said that it served as a marker that “we had finally arrived at a place in history where  people would no longer tolerate the continuing dehumanisation of Black people”.

    Despite the massive public support for the toppling of the statue, Avon & Somerset Police – egged on by Priti Patel – made a series of arrests and eventually charged the four people who are in court with criminal damage. The Glad Colston’s Gone campaign commented at the time:

    Hundreds can clearly be seen on camera to have been involved in various activities that led to this object being pushed into the harbour. Despite this, authorities have decided to single out four people

    In response to the statue toppling, the Tory government’s controversial Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill is proposing a new offence of damaging national monuments, which would make actions like the one against the Colston statue punishable by up to ten years imprisonment.

    ‘If you have a festering cancer like Colston, you cut it out’

    Tom Wainwright – the defence barrister for Milo Ponsford – likened the removal of the statue to removing a cancer:

    If you have a cancer like Colston festering in your city, you cut it out. Even a new plaque would only have been a sticking plaster. Cutting it out will leave a scar, so that people remember what was there in the past and make sure it doesn’t return, but only once it is gone can the body heal. You have heard during this trial of the positive impact this action had, in prompting action where there was lethargy, promoting understanding where there was ignorance, provoking discussion where there was silence. Not just in this city, not just in this country but around the world. Bristol, like its tower, is no longer weighed down by the name of Colston but is a beacon showing how to bring communities together.

    Stephen Clarke – who is an ex-lawyer observing the trial – tweeted:

    Clarke tweeted this about defence barrister Liam Walker’s closing speech on behalf of Sage Willoughby:

    A ‘deliberate defence’ of the slave trade

    The court heard that the statue was erected almost two centuries after Colston’s death, due primarily to the efforts and funds of James Arrowsmith. Ní Ghrálaigh told the court that Arrowsmith was part of the Society of Merchant Venturers

    This was the same society that Colston had been part of, and which had been instrumental in pushing forward centuries of white supremacy, enslavement, and colonisation.

    Ní Ghrálaigh explained the context of the memorialisation of the erection of the Colston statue in 1880:

    As you have heard, the statue of Colston was erected 170 years after Colston’s death. That was nearly 90 years after the slave trade had finally been outlawed in Britain.The statue celebrated someone from the distant past whom James Arrowsmith knew had made his fortune from slavery. Some historians… believe that
    it was erected in direct response to the statue that went up the previous year to Edmund Burke, an opponent of the slave trade.

    The statue would not just have been a whitewash of Colston’s role in the slave trade. If those historians are right, it would have been a deliberate defence of the trade, at a time when the depravity of treating human beings as things had long been laid bare

    The judge in the case reminded the jury of the evidence of Jonathan Finch, head of Culture and Creative Industries for Bristol Council, who told the court under cross-examination from the defence that “concerns had been raised” about the statue at least as far back as the early twentieth century, and that campaigns had been calling for its removal since at least the 1990s.

    The jury was reminded that Finch admitted that people felt “very strongly” about it.

    But Chada told the jury that the council had done nothing about these community concerns:

    Despite knowing about all about its offensive nature, the statue was displayed for over 100 years. And the Council did nothing. They achieved absolutely nothing but over 100 years of inaction.

    Ní Ghrálaigh and Chada told the jury that – after years of public pressure – the council had considered correcting the plaque, which extolled the virtue of Colston. However, the correction was thwarted when the Society of Merchant Venturers intervened.

    Ní Ghrálaigh pointed out that Cleo Lake –  former lord mayor of Bristol – and said it “embarrassing” that the defendants “were in the dock for doing something that many democrats in the City believed should have been done decades ago“.

    Both Chada and Ní Ghrálaigh invited the jury to ask themselves why the council were appearing as witnesses for the prosecution for the pulling down of the statue. According to Ní Ghrálaigh:

    Indeed, members of the Jury, you might think what on earth is the council doing giving evidence to support a conviction in this case, having itself so abjectly failed to deal with the statue for so many decades?

    The defence argued that the four defendants had a lawful excuse for the toppling of Colston.

    According to Ní Ghrálaigh

    Rhian Graham, and the many others who pulled down the statue recognised the need to say: this is not Bristol. A slave trader is not Bristol. We will not continue to dress up a devil in angels’ robes.

    “The unfinished business of a now discredited memory of slavery“

    Bristol Radical History Group has published a collection of statements by Bristolians in support of the Colston topplers. You can read the full document here, but we thought it would be appropriate to end this piece by publishing one of them – written by a Black Bristolian.

    This statement is by Ros Martin – a local artist – who was arrested in January 2021 for attending a protest in support of the Colston topplers. Martin’s arrest and prolonged detention was condemned as another example of racist and discriminatory policing. She made the following statement at the time in support of the Colston Four:

    We take control of colonisation and slavery’s transatlantic narrative and legacies in our city through our actions of repair, reflection, remembrance the calling forth and honouring of African ancestors, whose blood and brutalised lives in plantation in the Caribbean and Americas built up the wealth of this city.

    Linking past and present we can vision a better future, one in which we move from being mere bystanders to calling out and actioning a more just Bristol for all.

    The toppling of the Colston statue… is the unfinished business of a now discredited memory of slavery in the city tainted in monuments to the so called ‘great and good of the city’, epitomising all that is self–serving and disingenuous about the wielding of power, not just in the past but currently in our midst.

    Thank you for pulling down the statue, such a burden lifted. Onwards in struggle

    Featured image via Youtube

    By Tom Anderson

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • Protester in Colston statue trial asks ‘how long must you ask to be heard and not be listened to?’

    “Democracy had well and truly broken down” over the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol, a protester accused of toppling it has said.

    The memorial to the 17th century slave trader was ripped down during a Black Lives Matter march in the city centre on 7 June 2020.

    It became an iconic moment in the wave of anti-racism protests staged around the world in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in the US.

    Rhian Graham is one of four people on trial at Bristol Crown Court facing a charge of criminal damage.

    Petitions and previous protests failed

    Giving evidence on Monday, Graham pointed out that there have been campaigns to have the statue of Colston removed from the town centre going back to the 1920s.

    Multiple petitions and protests and even support from a Bristol MP had failed to bring about any change, she said.

    A plan to affix a new plaque on the statue detailing Colston’s role in the slave trade had petered out when the Society of Merchant Venturers – a local philanthropic organisation – intervened.

    The group, which administered much of Colston’s £70,000 legacy to the city after his death, wanted the proposed wording changed to ensure his philanthropy was mentioned before his role in the slave trade.

    It also wanted any mention of the trafficking of children removed.

    Black Lives Matter protests
    The statue of Edward Colston was thrown in Bristol Harbour (Ben Birchall/PA)

    Broken democracy

    Marvin Rees, Bristol’s Mayor, decided to halt the plan because he disagreed with how far the text on the new plaque had been diluted.

    Graham said Colston had “perfected” the slave trade, adding: “No amount of philanthropy excuses you from that amount of hurt and suffering.”

    She described the Society of Merchant Venturers as “an undemocratic body of people, wealthy people, who have a lot of power and influence in the city”.

    Graham added:

    It is that abuse of power that causes so much frustration – the abuse of power and their stepping in and not allowing the truth of history to be told.

    She continued:

    At that point, what do you do? How long must you ask to be heard and not be listened to?

    I believe the council should have done something earlier, I do know that our MP, Thangam Debbonaire (Bristol West) had been calling for it to come down since 2018 and nothing was happening.

    I believe democracy had well and truly broken down around that statue.

    “Over 100 years of dissent – someone should have listened.”

    Graham said that she had signed petitions to have the statue removed, but did not see any point in writing to her MP seeing as Debbonaire had already spoken out about it.

    “(The council) had long enough to recognise how much harm a monument to a slave trader does in a very multi-cultural city – it doesn’t take much to realise that harm,” Graham said.

    “Over 100 years of dissent – someone should have listened.”

    Graham has admitted going to the protest with a rope in her bag, and helping to pull the statue down, but denies the damage done was criminal.

    ”By removing that statue we were removing a great symbol of oppression that towers over our community and is an offence to so many,” she said.

    “That was an act of solidarity and compassion, not violence.”

    ‘The Colston statue: What next?’
    The statue of Edward Colston is now on display at the M Shed Museum (Ben Birchall/PA)

    Graham told the court she did not have a background in politics or activism but had become much more aware of racism and inequality after moving to Bristol five years ago.

    “From 2019 I started to make more friends who had more of a passion for history, politics and equality,” she said.

    “I felt a bit embarrassed about my own knowledge and felt I needed to try and engage more with the world.”

    Graham continued:

    Having grown up in a predominantly white neighbourhood in Norfolk I experienced a lot of casual racism and homophobia and sexism.

    I didn’t think of myself as racist but the more I understood the experience of a black person on a daily basis, I felt I had been a terrible ally and I feel like I could have been more supportive.

    The realisation of the privilege I have because of the skin colour I have made me feel like I needed to stand in solidarity for black lives.

    The trial, which is due to conclude at the end of this week, continues.

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • Police apologise and pay damages to protesters supporting Bristol’s ‘Colston Four’

    Avon and Somerset police have issued an apology to four protesters they arrested for peacefully demonstrating in support of the ‘Colston Four’. The force has recognised that its blanket ban on protests and subsequent arrests of protestors was “unlawful”.

    On 25 January, Avon and Somerset Police arrested Ros Martin, Paula Richardson, Rolland Dye and Taus Larsen. The force issued them with fixed penalty notices (FPNs). It had issued a blanket ban on protests, warning that demonstrators could be given a £10,000 fine. Exercising their right to peaceful protest, the four individuals demonstrated outside Bristol magistrates’ court. This was to express solidarity with the Colston Four, the people accused of toppling slave trader Edward Colston’s statue during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests.

    Unlawful arrests

    Martin and Richardson wrote messages of solidarity on the pavement using chalk. Dye held up a placard, and Larsen cycled around the area playing music. According to Bhatt and Murphy solicitors, they all “wore masks and practised social distancing”.

    In February, Martin told The Canary that police immediately arrested her. Moreover, they failed to follow recommended practice to engage, explain, and encourage those breaching lockdown rules to disperse. Martin said:

    I was alone at the time, there was no other protester, I had a mask on and socially distanced, wrote three words and was immediately arrested.

    In a statement made after Avon and Somerset police’s apology, Larsen said:

    The whole thing was ridiculous. I wasn’t posing any risk to the public, but the police put me in a position which increased the risk to me and to the officers dealing with me.

    Following a legal challenge, Avon and Somerset Police acknowledged that the force’s blanket ban on protests was unlawful. The ban was in breach of Articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights which protect freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. As a result, the arrests and FPNs were also unlawful.

    According to solicitors Bhatt Murphy:

    The correct approach would have been to consider whether the individual protest was safe to proceed in its particular circumstances.

    ‘Vindicated’ in their right to protest

    A statement Avon and Somerset Police issued on 22 April said:

    we now accept we misinterpreted the regulations and that the arrests and the issuing of FPNs were unlawful.

    It added:

    We have apologised to them and explained officers’ actions were motivated purely by a desire to protect the health of the public at the height of the pandemic.

    The force has cancelled the fines for the four protesters. And it has payed compensation for their wrongful arrests in a “substantial” out of court settlement.

    Martin said:

    In the week that justice has been served for George Floyd, it is vital that the right to peaceful protest in support of the Colston 4 has prevailed. It is fundamental to our democracy. The locking up of peaceful protestors should never happen.

    Alex Raikes, director of Stand Against Racism and Inequality (SARI), said:

    It is welcome that the Chief Constable has apologised and that justice has been done for our clients. SARI supports peaceful, safe protest as it has been a key aspect throughout history for upholding and protecting human rights.

    What could this mean for other protests?

    Tony Murphy of solicitors Bhatt Murphy concluded:

    The Chief Constable’s acceptance that an outright ban on protest will never be lawful, including during a pandemic, is important. My clients regard chalking messages of solidarity on the pavement as a peaceful, safe and lawful form of in-person protest.

    According to lawyer Gus Silverman, this could be the first time a police force has admitted to unlawfully arresting protesters under coronavirus regulations. This is a significant ‘legal first’ in the wake of ‘brutal‘ policing of Kill the Bill protests in Bristol and elsewhere under coronavirus regulations.

    Featured image via Channel 4 News

    By Sophia Purdy-Moore

    This post was originally published on The Canary.